> big cluster of papers around a particular topic, none of which seems to move the needle much, is actually an indication that we need a new approach

I feel like when it comes to "Alien Spaces" or new approaches, there's no other way than to babble a lot of stuff that doesn't move the needle much but then leads through the implicit to language and communication mechanisms to a spike out of the local minimum. Didn't the ancient guard have hundreds more notes than ended up in their useful collections?

Nowadays you have so much research that nobody really cares to just ramble with attempts and approaches ... and instead skims the work that others certainly tried already ... distancing themselves from the possibility of new approaches ...